ABOUT US

A Better Road Forward is comprised of concerned citizens, small businesses, organizations, and communities who are committed to solving Missouri’s transportation crisis. We support increased transportation investment in Missouri, but we believe tolling fees on hard-working Missourians constitutes double taxation and will cost jobs by increasing transportation costs.

Tolling is not a solution to fund our transportation system. We believe efforts to increase taxes in the form of tolls without a giving the public the right to vote is taxation without representation. We are committed to stopping the efforts of unelected Jefferson City bureaucrats from pressuring our legislature to implement toll roads without a vote of the people.

WHY SUPPORT A BETTER ROAD FORWARD

Missourians are tired of being taxed for unaccountable spending by unelected bureaucrats. We don’t need another tax scheme that goes to fund a bloated government bureaucracy.

Toll roads are nothing more than an additional tax on hard-working Missourians, and will lead to job losses and increased costs on Missouri small businesses.

Toll roads and the so-called “Public-Private Partnerships” have collapsed in states around the country, leaving taxpayers like us on the hook while wealthy corporate interests and foreign companies make billions on the backs of hard-working Missourians. We don’t need another “too large to fail” Wall Street corporate bailout for toll roads in our state. A Better Road Forward is determined to not let this happen to Missouri families.

As taxpayers we own Missouri’s transportation assets, and we deserve a real funding solution that increases transportation funding without the use of toll roads.

Toll roads are simply just more big government, and more big spending. Now is the time to make our voice heard.

Join our effort today to stop this unfair scheme!

STOP DOUBLE TAXATION

Additional fees forced on Missourians for transportation purposes are just another tax on our hard-working taxpayers for the use of our own roadways. Missourians already pay a gas tax. We shouldn’t have to pay tolls, too.

Tolling will force Missourians to pay double for our roads. In addition, tolling our roadways will negatively impact small businesses along our interstates, result in increased costs to businesses and consumers, loss of manufacturing jobs, and loss of local tax revenues to our communities which depend on our roads for commerce connecting our cities.

Toll roads are just another tax on our job producers that will end up in the pockets of unaccountable anti-business bureaucrats. One Missouri business along I-70 estimated tolling would cost their small manufacturing company over $150,000 per year in additional freight costs alone.

Without a public vote, toll roads are simply another big government tax forced upon on hard-working Missourians and our families to use roads that rightfully belong to the public.

HB 155

Unelected bureaucrats in Jefferson City are attempting to force the legislature to authorize them to enact tolling without a public vote. There is a current effort underway in the Missouri legislature to double tax Missouri residents and implement toll roads through the creation of “Public Private Partnerships” for transportation projects in Missouri.

If passed by the General Assembly, House Bill 155 would authorize these partnerships and allow tolls to be implemented on Missouri interstate highways without a vote of the people. ABRF believes Missourians should have the right to vote on this issue.

HB 155 poses very real and significant threats to Missouri citizens and businesses by implementing toll roads. For example:

Local residents will have to shoulder a much greater cost while everyone else gets the benefit, as MoDOT will be able to charge tolling fees to replace revenues that are currently being used to maintain, reconstruct, and add new construction along the I-70 corridor.

Toll roads will have a negative effect on economic development in rural areas throughout Missouri, resulting in job losses in our communities.

Toll roads will divert crucial funds from much needed projects and will be used to pay for other roads and maintenance besides our interstates.

Toll roads will limit interstate access for some Missouri families who cannot afford another transportation tax.

Our local roads and bridges, many of which have been improperly maintained, would be at increased risk of further damage as drivers, including semi-tractor trailers, would by-pass toll roads in favor of our local roads.

There will be no cost controls once tolling is place. Missourians will be forced to pay whichever cost is deemed necessary by unelected bureaucrats who will control the funds without oversight.

Tolling is discriminatory against Missourians, and will hurt residents throughout our state disproportionately – adding a financial burden to the average Missouri family who uses our interstates.

Unelected Jefferson City bureaucrats claim that our highways are owned by Missourians, but they can still give these highways away in return for improvements and allow foreign companies to control our roads and charge tolls on hard-working Missourians.

Missourians should have a voice on HB 155 and have a chance to vote on whether tolls are implemented on our roads.

THIS ISSUE AFFECTS EVERY MISSOURIAN

Although the current tolling discussion rests on Interstate 70, Missouri transportation bureaucrats have already started looking at additional tolling projects on I-44 and U.S. Route 71. I-70 may only be the first of many future projects harming communities all across Missouri. This issue affects every one of us.